Content of an ethics course for nondestructive testing and welding inspection personnel PublicDeposited

Descriptions

This research evaluated the ethics competencies which were
determined to be important to the curriculum of an ethics course for
students studying Nondestructive Testing and Welding Inspection. Data
were gathered from samples of American Society of Nondestructive
Testing Nationally Certified Level III's (N = 268), American Welding
Society Nationally Certified Welding Inspectors CWI's (N = 212) and
American Welding Society Nationally Certified Associate Welding
Inspectors - CAWI's (N = 101) who are currently licensed by their
respective societies.
The twenty-nine (29) item instrument utilized a six-point Likert type
scale for the data collection. The scale, which was validated by
consensus using a DELPHI panel procedure, utilized the Hoyt-Stunkard
method for assessing reliability. The computed reliability for the
instrument was determined to be +0.970.
Analysis of variance tests were completed for each of the twenty-nine
(29) competencies to ascertain differences between ASNT Level
III's, AWS CWI's and AWS CAWI's samples. Factor analysis, using the R-mode,
provided for the clustering of competencies and constituted the
major analysis procedure for the study.
The results of the study indicated the presence of three (3) clusters
of content which were considered necessary to curriculum inclusion in an
ethics course for nondestructive testing and welding inspection. The
identified clusters include: I. Ethical issues and personal integrity (18
competencies), II. Ethics and the legal aspects of inspection (8
competencies), and III. Ethical theory and professional conduct (4
competencies).
Overall competency means ranged from 3.929 to 5.594;
significance tests showed only five (5) rejected hypotheses for the twent-ynine
(29) primary competencies. Standard errors of the mean were
found to be lower for the ASNT Level III's sample.
The results of the study present a valid pattern for the development
of objectives which should be included in an ethics curriculum for
nondestructive testing personnel and welding inspectors.